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This version of the website was created in 2025. See the Site Information Page for contact information, data downloads, and other details.

Partners

Railroads and the Making of Modern America is a collaborative, interdisciplinary research effort among historians, geographers, computer scientists, web developers, and digital library professionals. The project would not be possible without the assistance and generous participation of the following partners:

  • UNL Center for Digital Research in the Humanities

    The Center at UNL has developed encoding schemes, databases, and design for the project's web site. The Center has also provided student support, scanning, equipment, and technical advice. The CDRH is the home department for the project and has been integral to its development at every stage.

  • University of Portsmouth Department of Geography

    The project has also benefited from interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars and students at the University of Portsmouth. Professor Richard Healey is a co-director of several grants supported within this project, and his students, especially Katie Dooley, have worked on shared GIS and worker data.

  • UNL Computer Science and Engineering Department, Laboratory for Advanced Research Computing

    We have worked closely with professors, programmers, and technology professionals on data visualization and spatio-temporal modeling. Key partners include Professors Steve Goddard, Stephen Scott, and Ashok Samal, and Ian Cottingham, director of the LARC.

  • Stanford University Spatial History Project

    We have collaborated with Professor Richard White and the Spatial History team at Stanford on common problems of encoding and sharing data.

  • UMR Geographie-cites (13 rue du Four, Paris)

    We have also worked with Professor Anne Bretagnolle and her students to share common GIS data sets of the rail network in the U.S. over the nineteenth century.

  • Nebraska State Historical Society

    NSHS has provided support for the collection, digitization, and access to key letters collections and parts of the Union Pacific Railroad Collection.

  • Newberry Library

    The Newberry Library granted a short-term research fellowship and has generously allowed our project to transcribe and include several key documents from its vast CBQ Railroad and Illinois Central Railroad collections.

  • Iowa Digital Library, University of Iowa Libraries

    Iowa Digital Library has generously shared and made available for digitization and encoding the remarkable Levi Leonard collection which contains valuable materials on Samuel B. Reed and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad.